Honeymoon! (Part 1) The Drive to Asheville

We headed out early Monday morning for Asheville, NC. We were packed to the gills, but happier than ever to begin our first vacation as a Mr. & Mrs. :) I took this photo just before leaving our beautiful hotel in downtown Gainesville.

I have approximately 5 million photos of Patrick just like this one (thanks to over 25 hours in a car)

On one of our much needed breaks (bathroom breaks, gasoline breaks, etc.). I think this was at a rest stop in South Carolina?

I love Patrick's wedding band. Another picture taken due to long hours in the car.
We were very prepared with leftover chicken & hamburger patties from the wedding and slices of our wedding cake! Unfortunately our clever bags of ice decided to leak in the cake box which left us with soggy cake...yuck! It was tossed. But luckily I decided we needed to bring 1 of the 2 cake rounds saved for us from the wedding (the 2nd one is in Grama's freezer awaiting our return). (soggy cake = sad face)

Our first glimpse of "real" mountains. Of course I switched the traditional "I see the buildings" with "I see the mountains" (note: Robertson tradition - first person to see buildings of major city, usually Jax, shouts out "I see the buildings" for bragging rights...of course I always win) :)

We decided on the scenic route to Asheville, a little bit out of the way but completely worth it! Patrick is very familiar with this route because he spent many summers as a little kid going to camp in North Carolina. We passed right by his old stomping grounds at High Rocks camp, so of course I made him take a picture with the sign. He was thrilled it smelled exactly like he remembered, I'm sure it bought back a lot of good memories.

Week 1, Recipe 1

The first recipe was roasted tilapia, potatoes, and lemons. The Mr. prepared the meal tonight (lucky me!) since I was working (12 hour shifts never make me want to cook dinner). He said the recipe was fairly simple, the only long part was the roasting lengths. He sorta halved the recipe using 2 tilapia fillets instead of 4 and stated if he had also halved the amount of potatoes, "I would still be really hungry right now." Which I agreed was true but maybe we needed something green next time :)


Roasted Tilapia, Potatoes, and Lemons (serves 4)
Prep: 10 min, Total with roasting: 45 minutes

1 lb baby potatoes (12), halved
1 lemon, thinly sliced
8 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon olive oil
Salt & Pepper
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
4 6-0z skinless tilapia fillets (or do as we did and only use 2)
1/2 teaspoon paprika

1. Heat oven to 400. On a large rimmed baking sheet (ours is always lined with a silicone baking mat for easy clean up), toss potatoes, lemon, and thyme, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt & pepper; arrange in a single layer. Roast, tossing once, until potatoes begin to soften, about 20 minutes.

2. Toss the olives with the potatoes; nestle fish in the potato mixture. Drizzle fish with a teaspoon of olive oil and season with paprika and 1/4 teaspoon of salt & pepper. Continue to roast until potatoes are golden brown and crisp and the fish is opaque throughout, 12 to 15 minutes.

The only addition we made was freshly grated parmesan cheese on top. yum.

Getting Our Cooking On

First and foremost I would just like to take a second and thank everyone for making our wedding AMAZING. It was completely everything we hoped for and we have you all to thank. Thank you to those who had long commutes (and LONG plane delays) and those who were in town and lent a helping hand. Thanks to those who gave such wonderful toasts and those who shook their booty all night long with us. It is certainly a day I will remember for the rest of my life.

The Mr. & I had an awesome honeymoon in Asheville, NC. We can't wait to share pictures! We are just now getting back into the swing of things (1o loads of laundry later, gasp!) As most of you already know one of our favorite things to do together is cook/try new recipes. After being away from our kitchen for 2 weeks AND finally getting the chance to enjoy all our new gadgets we can't wait to start cooking again. Unfortunately we have grown tired of our normal go-to recipes (which became a routine staple a good month before the wedding). Fate must have known this because they sent me this month's Real Simple (for free since the MOG bought me one of their wedding editions) and lucky for us it has a complete month's worth of easy, yummy recipes we cannot wait to try.

"no thought required"...yes please!

Week 1 Recipes:
#1 roasted tilapia, potatoes, and lemons
#2 penne with tomatoes, eggplant, and mozzarella
#3 turkey burgers with creamy romaine slaw
#4 pork cutlets with spicy noodles
#5 steak with roasted carrots and onions

Complete with Shopping Lists. Bonus.

I am going to try and post some of our favorite dishes throughout the week... or you could just pick up this month's Real Simple and cook along with us!

I Hope You are Hungry...

One of the top reasons everyone should be booking flights to visit us in Memphis is the delicious BBQ.

We have two favorite local joints: The Bar-B-Q Shop and Central BBQ. Whenever the BBQ craving comes along (much more often for P) it is very hard choosing between the two. Not surprising since we have never had a bad meal at either one. Although our selections at both never change, the form of BBQ is quite different. Whenever we are craving your typical pulled pork sandwich we know that The Bar-B-Q Shop is the only place to go, but it's the BBQ nachos that keep us in the long lines of Central BBQ. Yup, you heard me right...BBQ nachos are where it's at.

So book your flights now and see us turn this:

(BBQ Nachos - Central BBQ)

into this:

(Yes the size of this bad boy is so big we share it)

BBQ Nachos include: Chips, pulled pork, nacho Cheese, BBQ sauce, BBQ seasoning, cheese, coleslaw, and jalapenos :)

Friday Flowers

What can you do with $9.00? Well I can make a bea-U-tiful bouquet.


1 Dozen Roses = $5.00
Bunch of Alstromeria = $3.99
Total: $8.99!
Thank you very much Whole Foods.


And of course a picture with my favorite model...Lucy.

New Camera!

I am super excited to report that we now have a brand spankin' new camera. My old camera can rest in peace knowing that this new one (name yet to be determined) can take awesome photos. For example...a fish eye lens feature:

Makes an already ridiculous cute kitten look even cuter. (But I just might be biased)

The Daring Cook's Challenge: Brunswick Stew

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.

The host gave some background about Brunswick stew that I found quite interesting. Apparently Brunswick, GA and Brunswick, VA both claim that they made the first Brunswick stew. An annual "stew-off" is held in Georgia to see which city can out-stew the other.

I am familiar with Brunswick, GA as my Dad lives about an hour away from it, but I had never heard of the associated stew, and thus clearly never eaten it.

There were two different recipes to choose from, obviously I chose the easier throw it all in a pot one. Legends say the Brunswick stew is complete when "the paddle stands up in the middle" of the pot. The challenge was set before us to make a proper Brunswick stew, paddle standing up and all. And that we did (well, sorta).

(Cook's Trick to spoon sticking up: Take photo fast)

Brunswick Stew

Recipe Two, The Short Way-
This version goes on the assumption that you already have cooked your meats and have broth on hand.

Serves about 10

2 ½ lb TOTAL diced stewed chicken, turkey, and ham, with broth - yes, all three meats
3 medium diced potatoes
2 medium ripe crushed tomatoes
2 medium diced onions
3 cups frozen corn
1 ½ cups frozen lima beans
4-5 strips crumbled bacon
4 tablespoons of butter
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon ‘Poultry Seasoning’
Dash of red pepper
2 diced carrots (optional)
Tomato juice

Directions-

In large stock pot or Dutch Oven, mix all ingredients, heat until bubbly and hot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add tomato juice as desired. Cook until all vegetables are tender. Serve hot.

(I quickly renamed it Rainbow Stew)

Quick and easy to make and very tasty! It definitely had an "earthy" taste to it, but only in the good ways. (Not like eating dirt...Pica friendly!)

This is a recipe P & I are sure to repeat when it gets cold again. Hopefully I will soon get the liquid portion of recipes figured out...until then we will continue to eat soupy-risotto and soupy-stews.